February 13, 2021 • 29 mins
Whether you call it the Spring Festival, Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year - this is a time to celebrate with family and friends. With guidance and listener support, Christine and JJ discuss and describe the visuals of the holiday, from food and clothing, to lanterns and dragon dances. Gong hei fat choy, everyone!
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Episode Transcript
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JJ Hunt (00:04):
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ
Hunt.
Christine Malec (00:29):
Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt (00:30):
And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to Me where
the visuals of current eventsand the world around us get
hashed-out in description-richconversations.
Christine Malec (00:47):
This is a very important and festive time of
year for members of the Asiancommunity. It's the Spring
Festival or the Lunar New Year.
And it's in my understanding,it's definitely the festive high
point of the year. So we thoughttoday that we would talk about
some of the visuals and imagesand we we got some excellent
feedback from one of ourlisteners. So JJ, do you want to
(01:09):
talk a bit about that?
JJ Hunt (01:12):
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, when we were starting
to get ready to do this episode,we put the word out letting
people know that, that we werenot only doing this episode, but
we wanted input from those whocelebrate the Spring Festival.
And we got some wonderful helpfrom our friend, Yang. Yang
spread the word amongst some ofher friends, she gathered
(01:34):
personal stories. She told usabout her traditions and even
forwarded some links to relevantartworks and museum programs. It
was it was just lovely. I wasreally quite touched. And so in
doing my research, I used hercollected stories and those
resources, both to kind of getinto the proper celebratory
(01:54):
headspace. And also as thelaunching point for my research
and you know, I say getting intothe celebratory headspace
because it's kind of needed thisyear, you need a bit of a lift,
right? Like, it would have beenphenomenal if we could have
recorded this episode inChinatown in Toronto's China
Town, maybe at a banquet hall orgo for some dim sum, right?
(02:18):
Like, we could have been sittingat a table having some fried
fish for prosperity, maybe somemeatballs to symbolize
togetherness, trays of dumpling,steamed bamboo baskets full of
dumplings for wealth, or panfried dumplings that are
connected by lacy skirts offried batter, maybe we could
have had some long, glisteninggolden lo mein noodles with
(02:41):
links of fried green onion tosymbolize longevity, maybe had
some Johnnie Walker Blue Labelwhiskey, and then--
Christine Malec (02:49):
Wait, wait!
JJ Hunt (02:51):
That's a thing! The Blue Label is important!
Christine Malec (02:54):
Okay...
JJ Hunt (02:55):
And then wed've gone out into the crowds for the
parade. To see the lions dancingand watch the demonstrations
from local martial arts schools.
That would have been my topchoice, but we didn't have that.
And so it was so lovely of Yangto send us her stories and kind
of get us in the mood a littlebit so that we could describe
(03:16):
this with the proper feeling andemotions behind us.
Christine Malec (03:21):
It really personalized it because other
people's traditions are, youknow, interesting, but they they
can kind of lack emotionalresonance, because they're not
your own traditions. But she waslovely to include some of her
own personal memories of gettingthe house ready and getting
things ready. And it just, itbrought me right into that
festive holiday space. And so Ireally feel so much warmer and
(03:43):
more authentic to talk aboutthis now that i've you know,
heard from someone whocelebrates it and for whom it
really does have have meaning.
So what are the some of the mostprominent visuals of the
festival?
JJ Hunt (03:55):
So it's an important festival and it's it's important
to remember that it's not justone day, right? Like often if
you're going down to a Chinatownto celebrate you're maybe doing
it on New Year's Eve or NewYear's Day. But the Spring
Festival is, is a big deal. It'sa big time of year, right? So
the festivities extend from NewYear's Eve to the lantern
(04:18):
festival, which is held on the15th day of the new year. This
is the new year in the Chinesecalendar. So this year 2021, the
year of the ox, New Year's Eveis on February 11, and lantern
festivals on the 26th. And Ishould say like obviously China
is a massive country, right? Sothe festivities, the foods, the
(04:40):
traditions, they're going tolook different from province to
province, region to region. Andbesides there are Chinese
communities all over the world.
And as is often the case peoplewho are living away from the
homeland, they often celebratemore fervently than those who
are back in the mother country.
So local traditions ingredientsMusic and Art of the adopted
(05:01):
country can make their way intocelebrations. So all of this is
to say that the descriptionswe're going to be talking about
today, they can't possiblyreflect everyone's experience,
right. And I would just invitelisteners who have slightly
different experiences, ordifferent visuals in their, in
(05:22):
their celebrations. Like, sharethem with us, I'd love to hear
about it, maybe on Facebook orTwitter, that'd be great to have
people sharing some of thosedescriptions from their own
celebrations, that would beawesome.
Christine Malec (05:34):
So I understand that color plays a huge part?
JJ Hunt (05:37):
It really does. So the Spring Festival colors are red
and gold, red and gold areeverywhere. Red symbolizes good
fortune and joy. And goldsymbolizes wealth and
prosperity. So red and gold.
Typically red is the primarycolor. Gold is for the accent
color. And it's everywhere, redand gold banners, lanterns,
(06:00):
clothing cards on envelopes,paper decorations, they're
everywhere.
Christine Malec (06:09):
I think of a lantern as a metal construct
with a kerosene wikinut orsomething. So what is actually
meant by a lantern in thiscontext?
JJ Hunt (06:18):
So the red paper lanterns that you see, that are
hanging all around Chinatownsall around the world, there are
lots of different variations.
But the standard red paperlantern is a red paper globe.
Imagine a perfect ball, aperfect sphere, that is maybe
squished a little bit from thetop and bottom, so it's a little
(06:39):
bit more bulbous around thecenter and flat at the top and
bottom. That's the standardshape of the red paper lantern.
And then it's ribbed, so thesethin ribs of maybe sticks or
wire, they go from the top ofthe lantern around to the
bottom, all the way around theoutside. And this kind of makes
them look a little bit likepumpkins with these ribs that go
(07:01):
from top to bottom. There'soften a cap of gold on the top,
and maybe a gold ring at thebottom. There's quite likely a
gold string with a traditionalknot and tassel dangling from
the bottom of the lantern. Andmaybe there are printed
decorations on the sides. I'veseen traditional designs,
(07:23):
written characters, floralpatterns, even cartoon-like
drawings of important historicalfigures. And in the daytime,
maybe they're not lit up, but atnight they're illuminated from
within. There's a there's a warmgolden light in there. So these
glowing red lights areeverywhere. These lanterns are
(07:43):
strung across streets. I've seenthem hanging from trees or front
porches of houses. I've seenthem in malls. They're, of
course, the major symbol of theholiday so they're in art and in
posters. And often if you're ona Chinatown main street, they'll
be strung across the street fromlamppost to lamppost. Often
(08:05):
there'll be some banners strungacross the street; again, red
banners with shiny goldlettering on it from local
businesses, welcoming you to theneighborhood. I've seen this in
Toronto's Chinatown, inVancouver, I was in Bangkok last
year for the spring festival,and they had these banners
strung across the street. Andit's often one row of banners
(08:28):
and then one row of lanterns,and then banners and then
lanterns all the way up and downthe main streets in Chinatown.
They're really lovely.
Christine Malec (08:39):
When you say lanterns so I understand the
outside, but is there an LEDinside or something that makes
it glow?
JJ Hunt (08:45):
They're like Christmas tree lights. You know, a string
of lights with individual bulbs.
And then these lanterns aresurrounding that bulb. So little
LED lights like that. Orsometimes there are no lights in
them. If you're hanging them offyour front porch, for example or
off a tree, there may or may notactually be a light in there, it
might just be the paper lanternitself.
Christine Malec (09:08):
How about dress? Is there a traditional
dress?
JJ Hunt (09:11):
Yeah, there are. My experience being at festivities
in Chinatown's, there's a lot ofred and gold clothing. I mean,
it's just everywhere. And Ithink my understanding is that
there's a tradition of buyingand wearing new clothes for the
new year to represent newbeginnings, to represent the
(09:33):
notion that this year will bemore prosperous than last. So
you buy new clothes. It's also aholiday so it's a time to
splurge. So perhaps someonemight get new socks or new
shoes. I understand this is athis is a thing for kids to get
new socks or new shoes. And thenmen and women are going to get
dressed up a little bit, evenjust to go out for a meal, or as
(09:55):
part of the celebrations, or togo to a parade, or to go to
someone's house. So perhaps themen and women might wear a new
red Tang suit. So this is like asilky top with a with a short
stand up collar. Sometimespeople call this a mandarin
collar or even a Mao collar.
It's just a short stiff collarwith no fold in it. And the Tang
(10:18):
suit top has wide loose cuffs.
And these cuffs are in acomplimentary fabric. So often
you'll have a red Tang suitjacket. And the cuff is in
blacks and golds. Maybe there'llbe intricate patterns on the
cuff for like floral patternsand whatnot. And then they're
(10:40):
buttoned all the way down thefront with knotted cord. And
it's very distinctive knottingor buttoning system. So
basically you have two lengthsof cord, one on either side of
the garment. And if it's a redgarment, then there probably
going to be in an offset colorof black or gold. On one side,
the cord ends in a little loop.
And on the other side it ends ina very precise knot. And of
(11:03):
course you just slip the knotinto the loop and that's how the
the garment is closed. So whenall of these are done up all the
way up and down the front of thegarment. It ends up kind of
looking like a column of thickstitches. It's very distinctive.
And for women, maybe you'regoing to wear a traditional
dress, right this is a greatopportunity to go into the
(11:26):
closet and get that traditionaldress set that you only have an
opportunity to wear a few timesa year. These are often form
fitting dresses, again with ashort stand up color. I've seen
variations of different cuts ofdresses with cap sleeves with
long sleeves. Again, a lot ofred dresses that are embroidered
with maybe a floral pattern ingold, or sometimes it's a red
(11:50):
fitted dress and there's a guestsilky layer on top that has some
gold elements to it. The thingis even if you're not wearing
traditional clothing even ifyou're just like in a you know
t-shirts or parka or whatever,red and gold is still the color
of the day, red t-shirts, redbaseball caps, red parkas, if
(12:11):
you scan the crowd at one ofthese celebrations, you will see
a ton of red and gold clothing.
Christine Malec (12:20):
Nice.
JJ Hunt (12:21):
The other red and gold you see a lot of is red paper
products; red and golddecorations in people's houses
or on businesses. Or redenvelopes and red packets that
are used for for gifts of money.
These red envelopes areeverywhere. I was in a store in
(12:41):
Vancouver last year leading upto the holiday. It was just a
drugstore, but if you spent $10or more, you got a little
package of red envelopes thatyou could you use, this was
their promotion. They'reeverywhere. And these little red
envelopes can be very simple.
Just a red envelope usuallyopened on the end, often shiny
(13:03):
red paper adorned with gold,maybe some silver or black
lettering. Or they can be veryornate with layers of cutouts on
top with embossed goldlettering, maybe some actual
gold leaf artwork. And peopledecorate their homes, their
doorways and businesses with FaiChun. Fai Chun are messages of
(13:25):
positivity, warm wishes, idioms,blessings, not unlike the
banners that are hung across thestreet in terms of messaging,
but Fai Chun are specificallyrectangular panels or squares of
red paper. The squares might beturned on their corners, so
they're like a diamond shape.
More traditional message mightbe done on strips of red cloth
that are embroidered with goldlettering. You'll often find the
(13:48):
inverted character Fu, meaninghappiness, that's a classic Fai
Chun message that would be hungon a door or beside a door. Or
you can also buy mass producedFai Chun. So this is shiny,
bright red paper with the ornategold lettering, but you buy it
from the dollar store orwhatever. And if calligraphy is
your thing, you can paint yourown. So people will render their
(14:12):
characters in very smooth brushstrokes of jet black ink, again
on red paper, or maybe they'llpaint some couplets. These are
pairs of lines of poetry, andthey're often hand-painted
calligraphy hanging verticallybeside doorways. And these are
things to welcome you as you'recoming into a house as you're
(14:35):
going from room to room. I'vealso seen Door Gods. These are
woodblock prints of Guardianfigures, warrior gods in full
ornamental regalia with angryknit brows and long beards and
pointed mustaches. And thesewoodblock prints are printed on
very fine paper and hung on theouter door. To protect those who
(14:59):
are inside from evil forces, andsometimes they're done with
many, many layers of color, andvery fine lines carved out of
the woodblocks to create a greatdeal of detail in these
woodblock prints. There are alsopaper cuttings, which are really
intricate paper silhouettes. Sothis is a traditional art form,
(15:22):
cutting paper into symbolicpatterns, sometimes Chinese
characters, and sometimesthey're representational, like
lanterns and so forth. Andagain, cut from red paper. You
put them in the window so thatwhen light shines in, it casts
extraordinary shadows on thefloors and walls inside. Red and
gold, the undisputed colors ofthe holiday.
Christine Malec (15:46):
I know that lions and dragons figure highly
in some of the imagery, what canyou say about those?
JJ Hunt (15:53):
Yeah, they're really the lions and the dragon dances.
Those are the the big SpringFestival showstoppers. I mean,
aside from the fireworks! Weshould, I think, just do a whole
episode on fireworks sometimebecause that would be
fascinating.
Christine Malec (16:08):
Um hmmm.
JJ Hunt (16:08):
But for the spring festival, the lion dances the
dragons, those are, you know,big events. The lions tend to be
two person costumes. So oneperson stands inside the head
portion, and the other personcontrols the hind quarters. So
the head of the costume, itcovers the person's entire head
(16:30):
and torso, but their legs aresticking out. So that's the
front legs of the lion. And theheads. You know, these are often
made out of paper mache orsometimes carved foam, like
carved styrofoam, so they'rethey're solid, they're more
rigid, and these costume headshave very large eyes and they
often blink. They've gotmechanisms inside that the
(16:52):
puppeteer can pull some stringsand make the eyes blink. Very
wide mouths, often the lower jawis hanging open, it's a flap, so
it can also be opened andclosed. And the eyes are often
encircled with long lengths offaux-fur, kind of like feather
boas, that are wrapped aroundthe eyes and maybe around the
(17:14):
mouth. Sometimes they look likea mustache on on the top of the
lion's mouth. Very brightcolors. Again, reds and golds,
but also purples and yellowswith with hints of green,
sometimes they're almost neoncolors. Extremely bright. And
they're bedecked in what looklike large jewels. They're not
(17:35):
real jewels, but they're huge,large jewel-like objects of
bright paints and very intricatepaint jobs. And then hanging
down the back of the neck ofthis of this head, this lion
head, is a decorated sheet offabric. And it's often got wavy
lines of matching for furtherthe same color as the full for
(17:56):
around the eyes. And that thatthat decorated sheet of fabric
covers the person operating thehind quarters. And so again, it
goes over their body theirstooped over in the back, it
covers their body and their legsare or the back legs of the
lion. So both operators havetheir legs exposed. And so they
(18:18):
were really wild, loose pantsthat match the lion's body. And
the only thing that looks out ofplace are their running shoes.
They're always wearingrunning shoes. Because these
Christine Malec (18:26):
Ha ha ha! lions dance! They really dance!
The Lions are very playful.
They're mischievious characters,and they're sometimes quite
daring. So they bounce, theyleap. And sometimes they kind of
have little play fightstogether, or they interact with
(18:46):
the crowd. And I've seen someamazing acrobatics. I've seen
the person who's in the head,the front person, will leap
really high into the air and thepartner behind will hoist them
onto their shoulders, so that itlooks like the lion is rearing
up on its hind legs.
(19:07):
Oooh!
JJ Hunt (19:07):
Yeah. And then they do these really cool balancing
displays. So they'll use aplatform with pedestals of
various heights on it. And alion or two will jump up onto
these pedestals and leap fromone pedestal to the other,
sometimes on two legs, sometimeson four, sometimes on one! And
(19:29):
I've also seen them climb onto agiant rolling ball, like a lion
in a circus show? You know, likea real lion in a circus show
where the lion tamer would getthe lion to kind of walk back
and forth on a giant rollingball? I've seen the same thing
in a Sring Festival situationtoo. So that's the lions; two
(19:49):
people in costumes, inside thecostume. And they're really
playful, mischievious, andinteracting with the crowd.
Those are the lions.
Christine Malec (19:57):
Wow. Just for fun I flicked on a video to get
the soundscape, and the drummingis amazing! There's some really
energetic drumming, so if you'reinterested in rhythm, it's
interesting to check out a videojust for that. Talk dragons.
JJ Hunt (20:13):
Oh, the dragons. So the dragons are actually more like
puppets, not so much costumes,so no one is inside the head of
the dragon or the body of thedragon. The Dragons are
supported by long poles. So theoperators stand underneath with
long sections of wooden polepointing straight up, and they
are holding on to differentparts of the dragon. And these
(20:36):
are, these are snake likedragons long, long, long
dragons. Their heads are similarto the lions in that they're
made of decorated paper mache.
And then they have long fabricbodies, sometimes open but more
often closed like a tube offabric. So the faces of these
dragons, they have longer chinsthan the lions, with like a
(20:57):
little bit of frill or beardhanging down underneath. Often
they've got big teeth, maybe outof Styrofoam or out of cloth,
and big open mouths. So you canreally see all of the teeth
sticking out. Big hooded eyes,but not as big as the lions
eyes, and very vibrant colors.
(21:19):
Again, incredibly vibrant. Andsometimes there are flames out
the side on the side of thedragon's face, as if a dragon is
flying through the air breathingfire and it's blowing back on
either side of the face. Reallyvery dramatic. And the body
itself, the long tube of fabricmight have pattern scales all
(21:42):
the way down the body. Maybethere's a fin in a matching
color all the way down thespine. They're really quite
beautiful, but also a little bitscary. Like if you just look at
the face, the expression is alittle bit vicious.
Christine Malec (21:55):
This is one thing I wanted to ask. Clearly
these are festive and fun andplayful and trickster-ish. But
is there an element of menacewhen you look at the lions or
the dragons?
JJ Hunt (22:07):
If you were to look at these faces out of context, then
yes, they would be kind ofmenacing, they would be kind of
scary. But they're socelebratory, the movements are
so fun and playful, that in thatcontext... I would say only a
Christine Malec (22:20):
Oh! little kid would be actually be
scared of these costumes. Theexpressions on the dragons in
particular, with the baredfangs, the shapes of the eyes,
the flames coming out the side,there is a little bit of that in
the design. But you know, thebright colors, the dancing, you
wouldn't be scared for for veryong. They're really quite fun
(22:43):
and playful. And the dragons,these are dancing dragons as we
l. And they're really long. Theonger the dragon, the more pr
sperity and good fortune isbrought to the celebration. So
usually, a good length dragon,a fairly long dragon, might
be 80 feet long. And that'sanned by a crew of that's
(23:06):
perated by crew of like 9,13 or 15 performers, it's got t
be an odd numbered crew. And
JJ Hunt (23:11):
That's like three and a half miles long! 3000
hey will often parade down thetreet holding their poles with
ne person stations, you know, watever every 10 or 15 feet dep
nding on how long the dragonis. And with their section on a
ole and as they walk, they mve their poles up and down, u
and down. So you've got thisundulating body of a dragon that
(23:34):
dips between the long woodenoles. The longest dancing dr
gon in the world, accordig to the Guinness Book of Wor
d Records, was built in 2012 inarkham, Ontario. And it was 5.5
ilometers long!participants were required to
(24:06):
hold it up by the poles. I sawsome pictures of this, some
videos. I mean, it's justextraordinary. A golden yellow
dragon with fins running alongthe top and bottom, curved
yellow horns blue and silverflames at the side of the head.
When I read about it I was like"Did they have to get one long
stretch of road and just marchthe thing five and a half K?"
Christine Malec (24:29):
Wow.
JJ Hunt (24:30):
it's huge. In fact what they did was, they presented it
in two connected empty parkinglots. So the first parking lot
had the head and several lengthsof the body that kind of doubled
Christine Malec (24:39):
Heh heh heh.
back on itself. And that waswhere the crowd gathered. So big
crowd in this parking lotfilling up the parking lot with
the with the head dancing andsome folding back-and-forth
lengths of the body. But thenthe body cuts across a walkway
into a second empty parking lot,and it is full with row after
(25:05):
row after row of Dragon body.
The body would go all the wayacross the parking lot, double
back, all the way across, doubleback, over and over and ove
again. It was so big theycouldn't walk it anywhere. So
they had a guy on a microphoneho would give them all
irections. Everyone had been assgned a number, either one or t
(25:25):
o. And when he would shout "On!" all the people who had been g
ven the number one would raise teir poles, and then he would s
out "Two!" and the people numbeed two would raise their poles
and the number ones would lowerhem. That's how they made it
ance; up and down, up and down.
t's awesome. The overhead picures make it look like a parkin
(25:45):
lot full of really long, wavygolden pasta noodles,
JJ Hunt (25:49):
Because it's just so it's packed. It's really crazy.
Christine Malec (25:53):
When you see a you know, a not five kilometer
long dragon going down thestreet. Does it make...? I guess
I'm trying to picture how theparticipants are manipulating
the poles. And so what's theeffective movement if you're, I
don't know half a block away orsomething and seeing it go by.
(26:14):
What would the dragon look likein terms of how it's moving.
JJ Hunt (26:18):
So if the dragon is kind of just being paraded down
the center of a street as partof a festival, which is often
the way it is. The parade at alot of these things is just the
animals walking up and down thestreet. And so the dragon, you
can imagine 13 people with theirpoles, they are usually wearing
some kind of T shirt that sayswhat group they're with, and
(26:39):
maybe some some of these puffypants that are not dissimilar to
the lion pants. But they're justwalking along, and as they're
walking along, they're raisingtheir poles up and down, up and
down. And what that looks likeis waves. Because the the dragon
body dips between the polesnaturally, as they as they lift
(27:00):
their poles up and down, itreally looks like a rolling
surf. That's the movement of theof the dragon as it goes up and
down. The person who's operatingthe head might be moving it from
side to side so there's aslithering motion. Maybe
interacting with the crowd alittle bit. When there's a
performance moment, becauseafter a parade, they will often
(27:22):
be a performance. And theperformances for these dancing
dragons are really somethingbecause they have to be very
coordinated. It's a verychoreographed dance routine. And
the dances are very... it's alot of serpentine movements,
right? Snake-like movements. Sothe operators move and walk in
(27:42):
various patterns, and they raiseand lower their poles in a
syncronized way to make thedragon slither across the sky.
The dragon will fold back in onitself into knots, and then
un-knot themselves, and then thedragons will spin or maybe
corkscrew and dip and roll. It'sreally quite elegant. There's a
(28:06):
fluidity to these puppets beingmanipulated by, again, maybe 15
people? It takes a lot ofcoordination. I saw a video I
think it was in Shanghai with agroup that performs with
illuminated dragons at night. Sothe dragons are lined inside
with LED lights that glow andchange colors. twist and turn
(28:31):
and dive very cool. I even sawone that had some sort of
fireworks in the mouth so itwould spit these fireworks out.
Christine Malec (28:39):
Oh my god!
JJ Hunt (28:40):
Yeah, super cool.
Christine Malec (28:41):
That's really so cool. That was so
illuminating. Oh, see what I didthere? That was a great pun. So
Happy New Year to all of our ourAsian listeners and a happy and
prosperous new year to all ofyou.
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Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ
Hunt.
Christine Malec (00:29):
Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt (00:30):
And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to Me where
the visuals of current eventsand the world around us get
hashed-out in description-richconversations.
Christine Malec (00:47):
This is a very important and festive time of
year for members of the Asiancommunity. It's the Spring
Festival or the Lunar New Year.
And it's in my understanding,it's definitely the festive high
point of the year. So we thoughttoday that we would talk about
some of the visuals and imagesand we we got some excellent
feedback from one of ourlisteners. So JJ, do you want to
(01:09):
talk a bit about that?
JJ Hunt (01:12):
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, when we were starting
to get ready to do this episode,we put the word out letting
people know that, that we werenot only doing this episode, but
we wanted input from those whocelebrate the Spring Festival.
And we got some wonderful helpfrom our friend, Yang. Yang
spread the word amongst some ofher friends, she gathered
(01:34):
personal stories. She told usabout her traditions and even
forwarded some links to relevantartworks and museum programs. It
was it was just lovely. I wasreally quite touched. And so in
doing my research, I used hercollected stories and those
resources, both to kind of getinto the proper celebratory
(01:54):
headspace. And also as thelaunching point for my research
and you know, I say getting intothe celebratory headspace
because it's kind of needed thisyear, you need a bit of a lift,
right? Like, it would have beenphenomenal if we could have
recorded this episode inChinatown in Toronto's China
Town, maybe at a banquet hall orgo for some dim sum, right?
(02:18):
Like, we could have been sittingat a table having some fried
fish for prosperity, maybe somemeatballs to symbolize
togetherness, trays of dumpling,steamed bamboo baskets full of
dumplings for wealth, or panfried dumplings that are
connected by lacy skirts offried batter, maybe we could
have had some long, glisteninggolden lo mein noodles with
(02:41):
links of fried green onion tosymbolize longevity, maybe had
some Johnnie Walker Blue Labelwhiskey, and then--
Christine Malec (02:49):
Wait, wait!
JJ Hunt (02:51):
That's a thing! The Blue Label is important!
Christine Malec (02:54):
Okay...
JJ Hunt (02:55):
And then wed've gone out into the crowds for the
parade. To see the lions dancingand watch the demonstrations
from local martial arts schools.
That would have been my topchoice, but we didn't have that.
And so it was so lovely of Yangto send us her stories and kind
of get us in the mood a littlebit so that we could describe
(03:16):
this with the proper feeling andemotions behind us.
Christine Malec (03:21):
It really personalized it because other
people's traditions are, youknow, interesting, but they they
can kind of lack emotionalresonance, because they're not
your own traditions. But she waslovely to include some of her
own personal memories of gettingthe house ready and getting
things ready. And it just, itbrought me right into that
festive holiday space. And so Ireally feel so much warmer and
(03:43):
more authentic to talk aboutthis now that i've you know,
heard from someone whocelebrates it and for whom it
really does have have meaning.
So what are the some of the mostprominent visuals of the
festival?
JJ Hunt (03:55):
So it's an important festival and it's it's important
to remember that it's not justone day, right? Like often if
you're going down to a Chinatownto celebrate you're maybe doing
it on New Year's Eve or NewYear's Day. But the Spring
Festival is, is a big deal. It'sa big time of year, right? So
the festivities extend from NewYear's Eve to the lantern
(04:18):
festival, which is held on the15th day of the new year. This
is the new year in the Chinesecalendar. So this year 2021, the
year of the ox, New Year's Eveis on February 11, and lantern
festivals on the 26th. And Ishould say like obviously China
is a massive country, right? Sothe festivities, the foods, the
(04:40):
traditions, they're going tolook different from province to
province, region to region. Andbesides there are Chinese
communities all over the world.
And as is often the case peoplewho are living away from the
homeland, they often celebratemore fervently than those who
are back in the mother country.
So local traditions ingredientsMusic and Art of the adopted
(05:01):
country can make their way intocelebrations. So all of this is
to say that the descriptionswe're going to be talking about
today, they can't possiblyreflect everyone's experience,
right. And I would just invitelisteners who have slightly
different experiences, ordifferent visuals in their, in
(05:22):
their celebrations. Like, sharethem with us, I'd love to hear
about it, maybe on Facebook orTwitter, that'd be great to have
people sharing some of thosedescriptions from their own
celebrations, that would beawesome.
Christine Malec (05:34):
So I understand that color plays a huge part?
JJ Hunt (05:37):
It really does. So the Spring Festival colors are red
and gold, red and gold areeverywhere. Red symbolizes good
fortune and joy. And goldsymbolizes wealth and
prosperity. So red and gold.
Typically red is the primarycolor. Gold is for the accent
color. And it's everywhere, redand gold banners, lanterns,
(06:00):
clothing cards on envelopes,paper decorations, they're
everywhere.
Christine Malec (06:09):
I think of a lantern as a metal construct
with a kerosene wikinut orsomething. So what is actually
meant by a lantern in thiscontext?
JJ Hunt (06:18):
So the red paper lanterns that you see, that are
hanging all around Chinatownsall around the world, there are
lots of different variations.
But the standard red paperlantern is a red paper globe.
Imagine a perfect ball, aperfect sphere, that is maybe
squished a little bit from thetop and bottom, so it's a little
(06:39):
bit more bulbous around thecenter and flat at the top and
bottom. That's the standardshape of the red paper lantern.
And then it's ribbed, so thesethin ribs of maybe sticks or
wire, they go from the top ofthe lantern around to the
bottom, all the way around theoutside. And this kind of makes
them look a little bit likepumpkins with these ribs that go
(07:01):
from top to bottom. There'soften a cap of gold on the top,
and maybe a gold ring at thebottom. There's quite likely a
gold string with a traditionalknot and tassel dangling from
the bottom of the lantern. Andmaybe there are printed
decorations on the sides. I'veseen traditional designs,
(07:23):
written characters, floralpatterns, even cartoon-like
drawings of important historicalfigures. And in the daytime,
maybe they're not lit up, but atnight they're illuminated from
within. There's a there's a warmgolden light in there. So these
glowing red lights areeverywhere. These lanterns are
(07:43):
strung across streets. I've seenthem hanging from trees or front
porches of houses. I've seenthem in malls. They're, of
course, the major symbol of theholiday so they're in art and in
posters. And often if you're ona Chinatown main street, they'll
be strung across the street fromlamppost to lamppost. Often
(08:05):
there'll be some banners strungacross the street; again, red
banners with shiny goldlettering on it from local
businesses, welcoming you to theneighborhood. I've seen this in
Toronto's Chinatown, inVancouver, I was in Bangkok last
year for the spring festival,and they had these banners
strung across the street. Andit's often one row of banners
(08:28):
and then one row of lanterns,and then banners and then
lanterns all the way up and downthe main streets in Chinatown.
They're really lovely.
Christine Malec (08:39):
When you say lanterns so I understand the
outside, but is there an LEDinside or something that makes
it glow?
JJ Hunt (08:45):
They're like Christmas tree lights. You know, a string
of lights with individual bulbs.
And then these lanterns aresurrounding that bulb. So little
LED lights like that. Orsometimes there are no lights in
them. If you're hanging them offyour front porch, for example or
off a tree, there may or may notactually be a light in there, it
might just be the paper lanternitself.
Christine Malec (09:08):
How about dress? Is there a traditional
dress?
JJ Hunt (09:11):
Yeah, there are. My experience being at festivities
in Chinatown's, there's a lot ofred and gold clothing. I mean,
it's just everywhere. And Ithink my understanding is that
there's a tradition of buyingand wearing new clothes for the
new year to represent newbeginnings, to represent the
(09:33):
notion that this year will bemore prosperous than last. So
you buy new clothes. It's also aholiday so it's a time to
splurge. So perhaps someonemight get new socks or new
shoes. I understand this is athis is a thing for kids to get
new socks or new shoes. And thenmen and women are going to get
dressed up a little bit, evenjust to go out for a meal, or as
(09:55):
part of the celebrations, or togo to a parade, or to go to
someone's house. So perhaps themen and women might wear a new
red Tang suit. So this is like asilky top with a with a short
stand up collar. Sometimespeople call this a mandarin
collar or even a Mao collar.
It's just a short stiff collarwith no fold in it. And the Tang
(10:18):
suit top has wide loose cuffs.
And these cuffs are in acomplimentary fabric. So often
you'll have a red Tang suitjacket. And the cuff is in
blacks and golds. Maybe there'llbe intricate patterns on the
cuff for like floral patternsand whatnot. And then they're
(10:40):
buttoned all the way down thefront with knotted cord. And
it's very distinctive knottingor buttoning system. So
basically you have two lengthsof cord, one on either side of
the garment. And if it's a redgarment, then there probably
going to be in an offset colorof black or gold. On one side,
the cord ends in a little loop.
And on the other side it ends ina very precise knot. And of
(11:03):
course you just slip the knotinto the loop and that's how the
the garment is closed. So whenall of these are done up all the
way up and down the front of thegarment. It ends up kind of
looking like a column of thickstitches. It's very distinctive.
And for women, maybe you'regoing to wear a traditional
dress, right this is a greatopportunity to go into the
(11:26):
closet and get that traditionaldress set that you only have an
opportunity to wear a few timesa year. These are often form
fitting dresses, again with ashort stand up color. I've seen
variations of different cuts ofdresses with cap sleeves with
long sleeves. Again, a lot ofred dresses that are embroidered
with maybe a floral pattern ingold, or sometimes it's a red
(11:50):
fitted dress and there's a guestsilky layer on top that has some
gold elements to it. The thingis even if you're not wearing
traditional clothing even ifyou're just like in a you know
t-shirts or parka or whatever,red and gold is still the color
of the day, red t-shirts, redbaseball caps, red parkas, if
(12:11):
you scan the crowd at one ofthese celebrations, you will see
a ton of red and gold clothing.
Christine Malec (12:20):
Nice.
JJ Hunt (12:21):
The other red and gold you see a lot of is red paper
products; red and golddecorations in people's houses
or on businesses. Or redenvelopes and red packets that
are used for for gifts of money.
These red envelopes areeverywhere. I was in a store in
(12:41):
Vancouver last year leading upto the holiday. It was just a
drugstore, but if you spent $10or more, you got a little
package of red envelopes thatyou could you use, this was
their promotion. They'reeverywhere. And these little red
envelopes can be very simple.
Just a red envelope usuallyopened on the end, often shiny
(13:03):
red paper adorned with gold,maybe some silver or black
lettering. Or they can be veryornate with layers of cutouts on
top with embossed goldlettering, maybe some actual
gold leaf artwork. And peopledecorate their homes, their
doorways and businesses with FaiChun. Fai Chun are messages of
(13:25):
positivity, warm wishes, idioms,blessings, not unlike the
banners that are hung across thestreet in terms of messaging,
but Fai Chun are specificallyrectangular panels or squares of
red paper. The squares might beturned on their corners, so
they're like a diamond shape.
More traditional message mightbe done on strips of red cloth
that are embroidered with goldlettering. You'll often find the
(13:48):
inverted character Fu, meaninghappiness, that's a classic Fai
Chun message that would be hungon a door or beside a door. Or
you can also buy mass producedFai Chun. So this is shiny,
bright red paper with the ornategold lettering, but you buy it
from the dollar store orwhatever. And if calligraphy is
your thing, you can paint yourown. So people will render their
(14:12):
characters in very smooth brushstrokes of jet black ink, again
on red paper, or maybe they'llpaint some couplets. These are
pairs of lines of poetry, andthey're often hand-painted
calligraphy hanging verticallybeside doorways. And these are
things to welcome you as you'recoming into a house as you're
(14:35):
going from room to room. I'vealso seen Door Gods. These are
woodblock prints of Guardianfigures, warrior gods in full
ornamental regalia with angryknit brows and long beards and
pointed mustaches. And thesewoodblock prints are printed on
very fine paper and hung on theouter door. To protect those who
(14:59):
are inside from evil forces, andsometimes they're done with
many, many layers of color, andvery fine lines carved out of
the woodblocks to create a greatdeal of detail in these
woodblock prints. There are alsopaper cuttings, which are really
intricate paper silhouettes. Sothis is a traditional art form,
(15:22):
cutting paper into symbolicpatterns, sometimes Chinese
characters, and sometimesthey're representational, like
lanterns and so forth. Andagain, cut from red paper. You
put them in the window so thatwhen light shines in, it casts
extraordinary shadows on thefloors and walls inside. Red and
gold, the undisputed colors ofthe holiday.
Christine Malec (15:46):
I know that lions and dragons figure highly
in some of the imagery, what canyou say about those?
JJ Hunt (15:53):
Yeah, they're really the lions and the dragon dances.
Those are the the big SpringFestival showstoppers. I mean,
aside from the fireworks! Weshould, I think, just do a whole
episode on fireworks sometimebecause that would be
fascinating.
Christine Malec (16:08):
Um hmmm.
JJ Hunt (16:08):
But for the spring festival, the lion dances the
dragons, those are, you know,big events. The lions tend to be
two person costumes. So oneperson stands inside the head
portion, and the other personcontrols the hind quarters. So
the head of the costume, itcovers the person's entire head
(16:30):
and torso, but their legs aresticking out. So that's the
front legs of the lion. And theheads. You know, these are often
made out of paper mache orsometimes carved foam, like
carved styrofoam, so they'rethey're solid, they're more
rigid, and these costume headshave very large eyes and they
often blink. They've gotmechanisms inside that the
(16:52):
puppeteer can pull some stringsand make the eyes blink. Very
wide mouths, often the lower jawis hanging open, it's a flap, so
it can also be opened andclosed. And the eyes are often
encircled with long lengths offaux-fur, kind of like feather
boas, that are wrapped aroundthe eyes and maybe around the
(17:14):
mouth. Sometimes they look likea mustache on on the top of the
lion's mouth. Very brightcolors. Again, reds and golds,
but also purples and yellowswith with hints of green,
sometimes they're almost neoncolors. Extremely bright. And
they're bedecked in what looklike large jewels. They're not
(17:35):
real jewels, but they're huge,large jewel-like objects of
bright paints and very intricatepaint jobs. And then hanging
down the back of the neck ofthis of this head, this lion
head, is a decorated sheet offabric. And it's often got wavy
lines of matching for furtherthe same color as the full for
(17:56):
around the eyes. And that thatthat decorated sheet of fabric
covers the person operating thehind quarters. And so again, it
goes over their body theirstooped over in the back, it
covers their body and their legsare or the back legs of the
lion. So both operators havetheir legs exposed. And so they
(18:18):
were really wild, loose pantsthat match the lion's body. And
the only thing that looks out ofplace are their running shoes.
They're always wearingrunning shoes. Because these
Christine Malec (18:26):
Ha ha ha! lions dance! They really dance!
The Lions are very playful.
They're mischievious characters,and they're sometimes quite
daring. So they bounce, theyleap. And sometimes they kind of
have little play fightstogether, or they interact with
(18:46):
the crowd. And I've seen someamazing acrobatics. I've seen
the person who's in the head,the front person, will leap
really high into the air and thepartner behind will hoist them
onto their shoulders, so that itlooks like the lion is rearing
up on its hind legs.
(19:07):
Oooh!
JJ Hunt (19:07):
Yeah. And then they do these really cool balancing
displays. So they'll use aplatform with pedestals of
various heights on it. And alion or two will jump up onto
these pedestals and leap fromone pedestal to the other,
sometimes on two legs, sometimeson four, sometimes on one! And
(19:29):
I've also seen them climb onto agiant rolling ball, like a lion
in a circus show? You know, likea real lion in a circus show
where the lion tamer would getthe lion to kind of walk back
and forth on a giant rollingball? I've seen the same thing
in a Sring Festival situationtoo. So that's the lions; two
(19:49):
people in costumes, inside thecostume. And they're really
playful, mischievious, andinteracting with the crowd.
Those are the lions.
Christine Malec (19:57):
Wow. Just for fun I flicked on a video to get
the soundscape, and the drummingis amazing! There's some really
energetic drumming, so if you'reinterested in rhythm, it's
interesting to check out a videojust for that. Talk dragons.
JJ Hunt (20:13):
Oh, the dragons. So the dragons are actually more like
puppets, not so much costumes,so no one is inside the head of
the dragon or the body of thedragon. The Dragons are
supported by long poles. So theoperators stand underneath with
long sections of wooden polepointing straight up, and they
are holding on to differentparts of the dragon. And these
(20:36):
are, these are snake likedragons long, long, long
dragons. Their heads are similarto the lions in that they're
made of decorated paper mache.
And then they have long fabricbodies, sometimes open but more
often closed like a tube offabric. So the faces of these
dragons, they have longer chinsthan the lions, with like a
(20:57):
little bit of frill or beardhanging down underneath. Often
they've got big teeth, maybe outof Styrofoam or out of cloth,
and big open mouths. So you canreally see all of the teeth
sticking out. Big hooded eyes,but not as big as the lions
eyes, and very vibrant colors.
(21:19):
Again, incredibly vibrant. Andsometimes there are flames out
the side on the side of thedragon's face, as if a dragon is
flying through the air breathingfire and it's blowing back on
either side of the face. Reallyvery dramatic. And the body
itself, the long tube of fabricmight have pattern scales all
(21:42):
the way down the body. Maybethere's a fin in a matching
color all the way down thespine. They're really quite
beautiful, but also a little bitscary. Like if you just look at
the face, the expression is alittle bit vicious.
Christine Malec (21:55):
This is one thing I wanted to ask. Clearly
these are festive and fun andplayful and trickster-ish. But
is there an element of menacewhen you look at the lions or
the dragons?
JJ Hunt (22:07):
If you were to look at these faces out of context, then
yes, they would be kind ofmenacing, they would be kind of
scary. But they're socelebratory, the movements are
so fun and playful, that in thatcontext... I would say only a
Christine Malec (22:20):
Oh! little kid would be actually be
scared of these costumes. Theexpressions on the dragons in
particular, with the baredfangs, the shapes of the eyes,
the flames coming out the side,there is a little bit of that in
the design. But you know, thebright colors, the dancing, you
wouldn't be scared for for veryong. They're really quite fun
(22:43):
and playful. And the dragons,these are dancing dragons as we
l. And they're really long. Theonger the dragon, the more pr
sperity and good fortune isbrought to the celebration. So
usually, a good length dragon,a fairly long dragon, might
be 80 feet long. And that'sanned by a crew of that's
(23:06):
perated by crew of like 9,13 or 15 performers, it's got t
be an odd numbered crew. And
JJ Hunt (23:11):
That's like three and a half miles long! 3000
hey will often parade down thetreet holding their poles with
ne person stations, you know, watever every 10 or 15 feet dep
nding on how long the dragonis. And with their section on a
ole and as they walk, they mve their poles up and down, u
and down. So you've got thisundulating body of a dragon that
(23:34):
dips between the long woodenoles. The longest dancing dr
gon in the world, accordig to the Guinness Book of Wor
d Records, was built in 2012 inarkham, Ontario. And it was 5.5
ilometers long!participants were required to
(24:06):
hold it up by the poles. I sawsome pictures of this, some
videos. I mean, it's justextraordinary. A golden yellow
dragon with fins running alongthe top and bottom, curved
yellow horns blue and silverflames at the side of the head.
When I read about it I was like"Did they have to get one long
stretch of road and just marchthe thing five and a half K?"
Christine Malec (24:29):
Wow.
JJ Hunt (24:30):
it's huge. In fact what they did was, they presented it
in two connected empty parkinglots. So the first parking lot
had the head and several lengthsof the body that kind of doubled
Christine Malec (24:39):
Heh heh heh.
back on itself. And that waswhere the crowd gathered. So big
crowd in this parking lotfilling up the parking lot with
the with the head dancing andsome folding back-and-forth
lengths of the body. But thenthe body cuts across a walkway
into a second empty parking lot,and it is full with row after
(25:05):
row after row of Dragon body.
The body would go all the wayacross the parking lot, double
back, all the way across, doubleback, over and over and ove
again. It was so big theycouldn't walk it anywhere. So
they had a guy on a microphoneho would give them all
irections. Everyone had been assgned a number, either one or t
(25:25):
o. And when he would shout "On!" all the people who had been g
ven the number one would raise teir poles, and then he would s
out "Two!" and the people numbeed two would raise their poles
and the number ones would lowerhem. That's how they made it
ance; up and down, up and down.
t's awesome. The overhead picures make it look like a parkin
(25:45):
lot full of really long, wavygolden pasta noodles,
JJ Hunt (25:49):
Because it's just so it's packed. It's really crazy.
Christine Malec (25:53):
When you see a you know, a not five kilometer
long dragon going down thestreet. Does it make...? I guess
I'm trying to picture how theparticipants are manipulating
the poles. And so what's theeffective movement if you're, I
don't know half a block away orsomething and seeing it go by.
(26:14):
What would the dragon look likein terms of how it's moving.
JJ Hunt (26:18):
So if the dragon is kind of just being paraded down
the center of a street as partof a festival, which is often
the way it is. The parade at alot of these things is just the
animals walking up and down thestreet. And so the dragon, you
can imagine 13 people with theirpoles, they are usually wearing
some kind of T shirt that sayswhat group they're with, and
(26:39):
maybe some some of these puffypants that are not dissimilar to
the lion pants. But they're justwalking along, and as they're
walking along, they're raisingtheir poles up and down, up and
down. And what that looks likeis waves. Because the the dragon
body dips between the polesnaturally, as they as they lift
(27:00):
their poles up and down, itreally looks like a rolling
surf. That's the movement of theof the dragon as it goes up and
down. The person who's operatingthe head might be moving it from
side to side so there's aslithering motion. Maybe
interacting with the crowd alittle bit. When there's a
performance moment, becauseafter a parade, they will often
(27:22):
be a performance. And theperformances for these dancing
dragons are really somethingbecause they have to be very
coordinated. It's a verychoreographed dance routine. And
the dances are very... it's alot of serpentine movements,
right? Snake-like movements. Sothe operators move and walk in
(27:42):
various patterns, and they raiseand lower their poles in a
syncronized way to make thedragon slither across the sky.
The dragon will fold back in onitself into knots, and then
un-knot themselves, and then thedragons will spin or maybe
corkscrew and dip and roll. It'sreally quite elegant. There's a
(28:06):
fluidity to these puppets beingmanipulated by, again, maybe 15
people? It takes a lot ofcoordination. I saw a video I
think it was in Shanghai with agroup that performs with
illuminated dragons at night. Sothe dragons are lined inside
with LED lights that glow andchange colors. twist and turn
(28:31):
and dive very cool. I even sawone that had some sort of
fireworks in the mouth so itwould spit these fireworks out.
Christine Malec (28:39):
Oh my god!
JJ Hunt (28:40):
Yeah, super cool.
Christine Malec (28:41):
That's really so cool. That was so
illuminating. Oh, see what I didthere? That was a great pun. So
Happy New Year to all of our ourAsian listeners and a happy and
prosperous new year to all ofyou.
We love making this podcast. Ifyou love hearing it. Perhaps
you'll consider supporting itscreation and development by
(29:03):
becoming a patron. We've set upa Patreon page to help cover the
costs of putting this showtogether. You can contribute as
a listener or as a sponsor tohelp ensure that accessible and
entertaining journalismcontinues to reach our
community. Visit patreon.comslash talk description to me.
That's pa t ar e o n.com slashtalk description to me have
(29:26):
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